cwayne@unm-cvax.UUCP (04/03/85)
>Scenario: Enterprise taken to android planet where Harry Mudd is. > Androids beam down all members of the enterprise and take over > ship. > Ingenious Kirk and officers short circuit all the androids. > >Question: How do they get back up to the enterprise? Nobody is on board so >nobody can beam them up, and all the androids have short-circuited so they >can't be programmed to do it. The following are other possible explainations besides the one that says that the androids onboard were not really short-circuted, but just temporarily out of order and could be repaired by reprogramming. In "I, Mudd", Mudd says he had a few [androids] beamed up. Now, the way I see it, this was done one of several ways. First, I will assume that Norman had disabled the ship's shields. (the planet may have defensive shields that protect the Enterprise, but this is not important) 1) Norman duplicated Kirk's voice. 2) Norman reprogrammed the voice check recording for Kirk while still on the Enterprise. 3) The androids have their own transporter system. 4) The androids have orbital shuttles. (maybe even commando or MRS type shuttles?) Let's say that even if the shields were up and Norman tried #1 and/or #2, Scotty would've first made a computer check on Kirk's voice and if he was still not satisfied, Scott would expect a counter-sign, in which case Scotty wouldn't have a fly beamed up! Either way Norman was playing against the odds. He is an android, not readily able to bluff at great odds (a human trait), if there was an easier way (higher percentage for) to do it, he would do it. That leaves either/or/both #3 and #4, and obviously that would be easier. With all the technology of the androids, they must be capiable of constructing at least one of these systems (transporter,shuttle). So when it came time to get back on board, Kirk et. al. had the means of getting back! Another point made was that some time ago scott had wired into the communicator a signal that activated the transporter, but then you need a proper working communicator and a transporter that is listening to that communicator. I.E. if Kirk et. al. did have communicators when they beamed down, the question would be: did Norman confiscate their communicators or did he some how disable them? Therefore, if they were confiscated Kirk would have to rely on the androids methods, if not all he had to do was call the ship/transporter! I honestly don't remember the episode, but I do recall this [rewiring of communicators/transporters] being refered to. In "The Galactic Whirlpool"{GW/n}, other forms of remote tranportation is used. In "The Entropy Effect"{EE/n} (?), a whole planet's population uses mass transporter transportation instead of cars, trains, planes, etc... Two other problems are how did the other androids operate with Norman gone and how did he slip into Starfleet? When Norman left, most of the androids were shut off and Mudd never even noticed. With the smaller number of androids, Norman was not needed to directly coordinate. As far as getting onboard the Enterprise, Norman might of had another android piloting Mudd's ship, drop him off at a frontier planet. From there he worked his way to a starbase at which time he broke into the computer and forged a service record and a authorization of transfer to the Enterprise from the starbase he was at. From there on, it was down hill, he swipes a uniform and maybe some gear and when onboard, puts off McCoy as long as possible. Chris Wayne @ UNM "When a fly TAKES OFF from the ceiling, does it do a half roll or a half loop?"